BATTLING THE INTELLIGENCE GAP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201060027-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: July 3, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

.STATE
BOSTON GLORF.
ARTICLE !r77r7''
ON P.";I" __3 July 1985
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`IT IS FRUSTRATING'
the intelligence ga
Battling
Gathering data amid a morass of comPlicatiOns
in the middle East have compounded the.
by Ben Brad s Jr.
Globe staff
The first time President Reagan met
with leaders of the American intelligence
community, within a week of assuming
office in 1981. one of those present recalls
that Reagan was bluntly told the quality
of US intelligence on worldwide terrorism
was sorely deficient. The president or-
dered that it be improved.
Tens of millions of dollars have been
spent toward that end, but now, in the
wake of the TWA hijacking - the latest in,
a string of terrorist attacks directed
against the United States - many are
asking. to what effect?
"We're still five years behind where
we should be." said Sen. Patrick Leahy
(D-Vt.), vice chairman of the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence. In a telephone
Interview. "Once you've got a terrorist sit-
uation where they've taken hostages, the
limited
l
t
y
reme
options available are ex
. more of intelligence than it can produce.
sful is to
The only way it can be succes
said Stansfield director of the
htopit a real before it happens. That's when we Central Intelligence Agency during the
have problem."
Carter administration. "To know the in-
in recent days. the Reagan adminis- ner workings of every terrorist group in
tration itself has offered up what critics the world is far beyond our capability.
consider tacit acknowledgment of funda. There are too many of them. They're too
mental intelligence deficiencies on terror- fanatic. You cannot just penetrate them
ism. overnight. They put up too stern a test of
"The problem is who is perpetrating your loyalty. We've got to look on that as
these deeds, who their accomplices are, a job which we should try to do, but one
where they are located ...." said Reagan which will never produce a high degree of
at his June 18 press conference. "It is results,"
frustrating, but as I say. you have to be William Case .current director of in
able to pinpoint the enemy. You can't just tellitence, said in an April speech at
start shooting without having someone in the Fletcher School of w and iploma-
your sights." cy that terrorist groups are "very tough
Calls for retaliation In the hijacking - nuts for intelligence to crack. That is gl-
and in other cases such as the bombings most self-evident. They are small, not
of the US embassy in Beirut and the the easily penetrated. and their operations
Marine Corps barracks there - have been are closely held and compartmented.
muted by the question of precisely who Only a few kin the or nizations are
Washington should retaliate against, as erlyy to sp~cl c operations. they move
well as by policy considerations of whets- quic y an place a verx+ igh premium
er doing so would kill many Innocent ci- on secrecy and surprise.
vilians and setoff another round of repri- Bobby Ray Inman, who was Turner's
for the ssals
According original reprisal. deputy from 1982 to 1983 and director of
to the Central Intelligence the National Security Agency for four
Agency, worldwide terrorist ears before that. agreed that terrorist
rose from about 500 in 1983 ist 3 to more than incident n are an "incredibly difficult target.
700 in 1984. Last year there were 355 ter- groups ut you just can't throw up your
One bombings around the world.
rorist forte of US intelligence, electronic hands cord to and date is say it'thes too absolute hard. The paucity of track re-
spe-
uue agai surveillance
satellites, is of little cific information in advance about use against ter. In gathering infor- terror-
terrorists. In through
ist activities." ipman also stressed that in
mation about terrorism, a premium is tracking to orist ups, collaboration
placed on human beings. But two events
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difficulty of keeping track of terrorists
there: the withdrawal of the Palestine
Liberation Organization from Lebanon in
1982 and the 1983 bombing of the US em-
bassy in Beirut.
Seven CIA agents were among the 63
persons killed in the embassy bombing.
including Robert Amee. widely viewed as
the agency's leading expert on the Middle
East. Although the United States has for
years officially refused to deal with the
PLO because of its own use of terrorism
and its hostility toward Israel. sources
said the CIA had been able to establish a
valuable network of contacts among the
organization's leaders and guerrillas
throughout Lebanon. The departure of
the PLO from Lebanon thus robbed
Washington of a significant source of in-
formation on terrorist doings in the re-
gion. A similar network has not been
built up in the Shiite community.